Hello everyone. I know it’s been a while since I last posted. I just recently got back from a week long cycling trip that ran along the northern California coastline. I was also able to test out my new fitness tracker, the Garmin forerunner 935. I took a lot of photos while I was biking and it was nice because I was able to keep track of my physical fitness with the new smartwatch that I bought specifically for this trip.

As much as I love photography, cycling is my other passion I always try to do a long trip at least once or twice a year. Back home I do a lot of cycling as well as jogging and running as I’ve always been interested in physical fitness and I feel like my photography can sometimes go hand-in-hand with it.

I have had many different gadgets throughout the years, but having a fitness tracker has been a lifesaver for me. My two favorite devices by far our my Fitbit Alta and by Garmin 935 smartwatch. The 930 is sort of a multipurpose triathlon tracking device. While I usually don’t do a whole lot of triathlons, I find it very helpful for the cycling and running metrics that attracts. It is especially good at tracking my cycling due to its built-in GPS system, which lost track of how much distance I traveled during my long bike trips.

This GPS watch is also great because I will always pair it with a running dynamics foot plot which is a device for keeping track of my ground contact time and cadence during long periods of running. The Garmin 935 also has a training peak which really helps to plan my workouts long-term and keep track of my daily progress. There is also a constant training status and load/effect metrics simulator that splits your anaerobic and aerobic workouts and gives you a score to help you improve your daily exercise routines efficiency.

This spots watch really has it all. They even added a altimeter to keep track of your climbing elevation which really helps me out as I do a lot of trail biking. The altimeter is also coupled with a whole host of other sensors, such as blue tooth smart, gyroscopes, and accelerometers. It even has a optical style heart rate monitor that keeps track of your pulse 24/7 which is really great for ensuring your heart rate is elevated to the proper levels during periods of intense workouts.

I took a lot of photos while I was traveling and testing out my fitness tracker and I had a blast. But now that I am back, I will probably be resorting to a more casual fitness routine. Which is where my Fitbit Alta comes in. This device is more of a casual fitness tracker because it is much more lightweight and not as feature-rich as my Garmin. It will however track the whole gamut of fitness metrics: steps, distance, calories burned, minutes, activity, and even stationary time are all correlated and quantified accordingly. I generally use this for more of a all-day activity approach, and I also like that it keeps track of my sleep as well. It is able to track how long and how well that I sleep each night, by logging my periods of movements and wakefulness at a score in the morning. I am also a big fan of the move reminder, which will send you a notification when you have been idle for too long.

I really like the Alta’s “hands off” approach, which utilizes smart tracking technology to automatically begin blocking your workouts without you having to press a button. This device is great because it allows me to basically automate my daily workouts, without having to carry a pen and paper or log things into the computer every time I finish a session at the gym. And if you have a smart phone like I do, you’ll like the ability to pair it with your device. You can see calls & texts as well as calendar alerts without having access your phone. I found this really useful for when I was exercising at the gym and didn’t have my phone on me, since I was able to see any notifications I was receiving make sure none of them were urgent or important. My Alta is also great because it has an amazing battery life. I can usually go a week between charges, which basically means I can ignore it and it will log all my activities without me and i never have to take it off.

These two trackers are easily my favorite of the bunch, but I’ve had many different fitness trackers over the years. Jawbone, Suunto, Magellen, Polar, and Misfit to name a few. While these are all great brands, and offer many of the same features as my Fitbit and Garmen trackers, I still feel that they are lacking when it comes to certain features. Either they don’t fit quite right, or the build quality just isn’t there, or even the price to performance ratio is a bit off. I’ve always been a big fan of Garmin and Fitbits products and I think I will probably stick with their offerings for the foreseeable future.

So if you’re a traveling photographer such as myself and are also big into physical fitness you may want to consider one of these amazing devices as they will help you gain a great deal of insight into your fitness metrics. I have many friends that run triathlons and they all swear by their fitness tracker and say that they could never have gotten to where they are physically without it.

Well that’s it for now, sorry to be so sporadic with updates and I hope to post more often in the future. For now I think I will post some of these pictures that I took along my trip. I took maybe thousand photos so it will take me quite a long time to go through all of them find which ones I like the best.

I recently took a trip with one of my favorite tour companies: Original World. I like these guys because they are great for someone who does a lot of traveling such as myself.

I recently took one of their Northern India tours and I was offered many opportunities for photographs. Highlights included the city of Rajasthan, which is an exotic dessert town with many amazing places to visit. We got to see the amber fort in Jaipur, which looked just as amusing or in person as it turns and a picture!

We also took a look at Chittogarh fort -at which is one of a largest forts in India. Original world is big on UNESCO heritage sites, and this one is quite intriguing. It sprawls over a 700 foot high and the spread at above the planes of the Berach river. I took many photos while I was there and wandered the place for many hours.

But the most exciting part of the tour was to Pushkar camel fair. This is basically a huge market of nomadic traders. Our tour guide was very helpful with translations and telling us the best merchants to go to. Take a look at some of the photographs to see these awesome places. We also rounded up to tour with the interesting festival called to Kharujo dance festival. I didnt really understand it all that much but it sure was fascinating.

This time around air travel within great crew and our tour was very small number in only six people. Original world likes to keep their tours small which is great because it encourages local interaction. I really had a lot of fun on this group tour and I feel any photographer would be right at home with them.

My name is Daniel and I am a newly graduated professional photographer. I have just recently graduated from Boulder University and I plan to use this blog to showcase my work. Please excuse the design as I am still working out the kinks. Unfortunately my web design skills are not quite up to par with my photography skills.

I am a big fan of traveling. So far I have only been out of the country once. When I was attending collage I did a study abroad in Luxembourg. I got bit by the travel bug when I was there and my profession gives me the perfect opportunity to do some much needed sightseeing around the world. I plan to use photography to finance my sightseeing. I have a few friends that do this already and they have some referrals for me to get started.

During university I also minored in health studies. My fall back profession would have probably been nutritionist. My parents were big health nuts and they never even let me go out to eat as a child. They were really into health and that has had an influence on me. That and the fact that I have suffered from a debilitating case of CFS ever since I was a child has shaped my attitude and outlook on nutrition. I feel it is very important what you put into your body since it can influence so many things in your day to day life. Having good nutrition can increase your concentration and general well being, especially if you are a CFS sufferer like myself.

Above is a picture of the opera house that was near my school. It has a great glass high rise arch to it, and it is about 3000 feet high. Quite impressive. I didn’t get much of a chance to see many operas there mostly because I don’t speak German very well. On the last night before I left we went to see the magic flute there. If you are a fan of Mozart you will like this one. I couldn’t understand much of it but it was still a lot of fun.

Well thats all I can manage for today, my CFS it starting to kick in. I will be taking a trip to the Norway fish oil plants next week to visit my friend Hans. I plan to do some sightseeing and photography while I am there. Later everyone.